Mexican Jazz in 2003 -- English translation

Like a coin in the air, and one there. I prefer that image to
answering what was good and what was bad, with categorical emphasis, in
Mexican jazz in the 2003.

It is more accurate to talk about the list of beings, and then the list of
must be's will get thinner. It is a good way to stop the spoiled wailers.

To begin, I want to talk about the presence of Mexican jazz and Mexican
jazzists out of Mexico. The publication of written documents about the history of
jazz in Mexico started first as a curiosity and turned into an interest of
investigators and jazz promotors elsewhere. This led the investigators to approach
Mexican jazz players (who more or less answered their questions), and also
led to the possibility of their promotion. Mexican jazz and Mexican jazz players
have been the subject of articles published in magazines like the French Jazz
Hot (by Patrick Dalmace), the British Wire (by Mathew Franklin), mentions in
the Spanish Cuadernos de Jazz as well as on the Jazzhouse page, and cyber
discussions via Jazz_Mestizo@gruposyahoo.com Jazz Mestizo and, ocassionally, Latin
Jazz. This projection has been echoed in Mexico itself. Inside our country we
have the presence of jazz as a theme in several newspapers and magazines,
thanks to people like Antonio Malacara, Xavier Quirarte, Juan Jose Oliver,
Victoriano Lopez, Sergio Monsalvo, Victor Ronquillo and players who also write,
including the pianist Alberto Zuckermann and the sax player Juan
Alzate (whose duo with pianist Mark Levine is on cd).

Thanks to these people, news that a Mexican jazz trio conducted by the
pianist Miguel Villicana played at New York's Lincoln Center, that singers Magos
Herrera and Iraida Noriega performed music in L.A., that Mexican drummer Antonio
Sanchez goes on playing all around the world, that Mexican sax player Luis
Marquez carries on in Belgium with his Mexican-rooted and that Mexican jazz
players play in Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay, Argentina, Brasil, Canada or Spain
(Marcos Miranda, sax; Magos Herrera, Lila Downs, voices; Ethos, etc.) doesn't
arrive as some bizarre information in empty spaces on a cultural or show page in
the newspaper, to be almost at random filled by an editor, Jazz in Mexico is
being documented and there is now a way of access to get to it. In radio there
are some spaces, too.

One of them, in Public Station Radio Educacion (DF) is a weekly broadcast
that celebrated in '03 its first ten years: Datos para una historia aun no
escrita. Radio UNAM, the National University Radio, has traditionally offered room
for jazz -- Panorama del Jazz,
founded by Juan Lopez Moctezuma and then inherited by the bass player and
radio conductor Roberto Aymes. Now a new daily space has been born: Jazz
Estacionario. Besides these programs there is space for Mexican jazz in the Mexican
Institute of Radio
(Horizonte).

Every year Radio Educacion has programmed December 25 as a complete day of
Mexican Jazz. As the man in charge, I shall say that there is a lot of original
material with great quality and proposal to be broadcasted. Of course, some
people (musicians that work also as broadcasters) see the other side of the coin
and they even arrive at the absurdity of questioning the authorities for
permiting some new spaces for jazz, "unnecesarily" spaces, by the way, where they
themselves are programmed.

It doesn't matter. The coin in the air presents its good face to them that
want to see it. In '03 the opening of a space in DF to play like the Papa Beto
(Makoto Ozone just played there) is good news. The cds recorded by the pianists
Enrique Nery, Eugenio Toussaint, Alberto Zuckermann; the singer Iraida
Noriega and the guitar player Cristobal Lopez, the sax players Diego Maroto, Marcos
Miranda and Remi Alvarez, the historical couple Hilario (Sanchez, piano) and
Micky (Chantine, voice) is something to applaud, and the reissue as cds of old
lps like those by sax players Arturo Cipriano and
Tomas Rodríguez and keyboard master Eugenio Toussaint is reason to celebrate.

Pianist Francisco Tellez, in '03, has continued his work in charge of the
jazz school in the Superior School of Music (DF). A lot of the school's students
and ex-students have collaborated in opening new spaces all around Mexico (one
of Tellez's former pupils, Tobias Delius, is among the best sax players in
the Dutch scene today). Another jazz education initiative, the
Berklee-Universidad
Veracruzana annual jazz workshop and festival in Xalapa, Veracruz, apparently
will continue, too.

There was interesting publishing activity by the Fondo de Cultura Económica
in '03. For a long time the only jazz title to be found in Mexico was "The Jazz
Book" by German Joachim Berendt. Now this national publishing company also
give the reader "Caliente, a history of latin jazz," my own "El jazz en Mexico,
datos para una historia," and "Historia del Jazz" by the U.S. writer,
scholar, JJA member and musician Ted Gioia. Other books exist now that deal with
Mexican jazz, like Antonio Malacara's "De la libertad en pequenas dosis" and the
photo jazz book by Fernando Aceves with texts written by Sergio Monsalvo,
"Tiempo de solos."

Let us note, separately, the continuity of the Eurojazz festival in the
National Center of the Arts. Every spring Mexican audiences can listen here to jazz
players that come from several European countries. It is a pity that in the
last two editions Mexican players have not appeared on the same stage. When
this did occur in early editions of the festival, it was a rich activity for both
players and audiences.

The worst thing for a musician is the oblivion of having been forgotten . It
must not happen with the death of piano player Juan Jose Calatayud (reported
in Jazzhouse.org). Beside the homages, the best offering is to broadcast his
music, and to continue, as his widow has done, producing his cds. A biography
was anounced to be made soon, and a cd with a Cervantino Festival concert by
Calatayud and the late trumpet player Chilo Moran will be available, too.

Jazz in Mexico is a real thing, with a history that has been developing and
is well and alive, If somebody denies it, it is their problem, due to their
ignorance. The cultural institutions in Mexico perhaps will catch the jazz train
when they see that next November Mexican jazz will be a presence in New York
City in the new Jazz at Lincoln Center building. This is also something to be
acknowledged by the private companies. We have the audiences, we have
the music. So what then?

Alain Derbez is sax player, historian, radio producer and writer, author of
the book "El jazz en Mexico, datos para una historia" (Fondo de Cultura
Economica), presented in the Guelph Jazz Festival in 2002 - and collaborator with
Cuadernos de Jazz and the Jazzhouse page.